Tim Kimmel and Luke Gibleon served as co-supervising sound editors on Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show's soundtrack was recognized with an Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)" category.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a live-action reimagining of the beloved animated series. The show follows Aang, the young Avatar, as he learns to master the elements of water, earth, fire and air in order to restore balance to a world threatened by Fire Nation.
“I had worked with Chris Zampas, the co-producer, on Game of Thrones,” Kimmel recalls. “He had reached to me to see if I was available, and I jumped at the opportunity, as I knew it would be an exciting and fun project to be a part of.”
As a supervising sound editor, Kimmel was responsible for overseeing the sound editorial crew, which included dialog, ADR, loop group, Foley, sound effects and sound design.”
“I meet with the producers to discuss what they are wanting on the soundtrack, specific details and direction of what is needed for everything other than music,” he explains. “I was also on the mix stage with the re-recording mixers, getting the show ready for producers to hear.”
Some of Kimmel’s tools include Pro Tools, Edicue, Soundminer and a variety of plug-ins, including Izotope, AutoAlign, Accentize and Waves.
“The Koizilla sequence was a monster in every aspect,” he shares. “Luke Gibleon handled the sound design side of things, which was a massive undertaking. I dealt with more of the dialog and ADR and loop group side. There was a lot of noisy production audio to replace, big crowds of chaos to create, etc.”
Kimmel brought Gibleon (pictured) onto the project, asking him to take on sound design, as well as supervision of the effects and Foley.
"I used Pro Tools, microphones, and a lot of different sound design tools, including, but not limited to, Soundminer Radium, Sound Toys, GRM Tools, Traveler, Envy, RX, Sound Particles, various harmonic and reverb plug-ins, etc. This show required a lot of different solutions for a lot of different design needed - more than I usually need - all of the various bending, as well as seemingly a new creature to design almost every episode. What I found most challenging was the whole battle with the Giant Kaiju Koizilla spirit that towers over the city. He’s made up entirely of the ocean, and we needed to feel his movement. His voice was also a huge task, as he needed a roar that could be heard miles away, and also needed to be expressive, with a range of vocals. It’s soulmate, the moon spirit was just murdered, so he’s not only angry, he’s heartbroken. His voice is heard on and offscreen for a ten-minute chunk of the episode as well, so that’s a lot of original material needed to feel natural. The episode is for a period of time a Godzilla movie - so much going on. It very much plays like a blockbuster movie in many aspects.”